It had been four days since a murder outside an artist’s cooperative in St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood rattled its close-knit residents when dozens packed into the Lost Fox coffee shop. There was no program. They just wanted to be together.

Local elected officials tucked themselves into tables to listen at the Sunday afternoon gathering. Neighbors chatted and caught up. Photos of Carrie Shobe Kwok were passed around.

Kwok, a 66-year-old mother of two and grandmother of four, was shot and killed as she painted a mural just blocks away, outside the cooperative building where she lived.

It was a seemingly random act, police said, and it sent a tremor through the neighborhood, east of St. Paul’s main downtown district. That along with a string of recent business setbacks has stoked concerns that the area is becoming unsafe, but neighborhood statistics from St. Paul police show offenses such as aggravated assault, burglary, theft, car theft and robbery have stayed mostly flat since 2021.

“It’s not a place we go to for any significant stuff,” said District Chief Jeff Stiff from the St. Paul Police Department. Last week’s homicide was the area’s first in about two years.

As police announced the first details of the shooting last Wednesday, a handful of residents who attended the news conference spoke of their concerns.

One said the incident confirmed a desire to leave the area after a string of minor crimes bubbled up. Another worried about the ability of the greater downtown area to attract visitors.

But at the Lost Fox days later, the message was clear: The neighborhood may be struggling in some ways, but it remains a safe and vibrant place. The residents would not leave.

“I love living down here, and I figure crime is everywhere,” said Maggie Strand, who moved to Lowertown almost a decade ago. “This has just rocked everybody. It’s nice to know neighbors can come together.”

“Lowertown” refers to a southeastern portion of downtown St. Paul along the Mississippi River, known for an artist community that lives in brick warehouses built between the 1880s and 1910s. It was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Like many downtowns across the country, St. Paul’s has struggled since the COVID-19 pandemic. Many workers stayed remote; bars and restaurants have closed; and owners have tried offloading properties gone stagnant. The area has seen an increase in unhoused people, public drug use and loitering, according to residents and police officials.

Rebecca Noecker, who represents the area on the St. Paul City Council, said she infrequently hears concerns about safety from her constituents. Overall, she said, downtown is “very safe” and its struggles are more reflective of post-pandemic adjustments than they are of declining safety conditions.

“Those are things that every downtown is grappling with right now,” she said.

The night after Kwok’s death, Linda Jeanguenin, who lives in Minneapolis but is from France, walked into Mears Park in Lowertown with a friend who lives nearby. She said in general, she felt less safe after dark in the U.S. than she did in Europe.

One distinct difference between the two: “Everyone here potentially has a gun,” she said.

The accessibility of firearms is another issue St. Paul is not alone in facing. Guns sales jumped nationally and in Minnesota during the pandemic, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates for stricter gun control. And increased gun ownership is associated with increased gun violence, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The 29-year-old man suspected of shooting Kwok, and who was killed by police in a shooting the day after in Belle Plaine, was barred from possessing firearms as a felon. Court records show his mother also petitioned a court to have him committed as mentally ill. St. Paul police released body-worn camera video of the shooting on Tuesday.

Stiff, the district police chief, said the department has a unit dedicated to interrupting the illegal flow of guns into the community, but the problem still “weighs on our head.”

Zack Khan and Sally Mellem, two Lowertown residents who visited Mears Park last Thursday night, said it’s a concern anytime someone legally barred from possessing guns and facing mental health issues might access one.

“It’s alarming,” Khan said.

As Khan and Mellem spoke, the hour grew past 9 p.m. in Mears Park, a sort of town square in Lowertown.

Just like the water in the park’s man-made stream, dog walkers and other passersby flowed through. Classical music played from the bandshell’s speakers. A couple danced in the shadows of one corner. Across the street, bar patrons sat with drinks indoors and on a patio.

Noecker, the City Council member, said that any urban area is going to have people engaging in negative activity, “but if they are vastly outnumbered by people just doing neutral and positive activity … then it feels and is safe.”

She said the neighborhood demonstrated it would remain that way after such a shocking act of violence.

“People have been coming out to comfort one another and to talk with one another,” she said. “That’s ultimately one of the most important ingredients for safety, and it’s not something that’s easy to create if it isn’t already there.”

Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this story.